Tuesday, October 10, 2006

LAGUNITAS BREWING'S "FREAK OUT!" ALE

You sure can’t judge a book by its cover, wouldn’t you agree? I mean, I’ve always thought the MOTHERS OF INVENTION were pretty lame, so when the LAGUNITAS BREWING CO. of Petaluma, CA decided to do tribute to those 60s theater-rock hippie clowns via the brand new FREAK OUT! IPA, I applauded the fact that there was a new Lagunitas on the market but was not impressed by the “brand positioning”, if you catch my drift. Ah well, it’s only rock and roll, and I’m strictly a beer scribe now, so what do I know. I do know that I had this on tap at the Toronado in San Francisco recently, and that one lone pint has me convinced that Lagunitas have hit this one out of the park. FREAK OUT ALE is fantastic – a tasty-dry, classic India Pale Ale with a real “golden grapefruit”-ish feel to it, and it’s of course totally full of hops. I honestly didn’t expect to like this as much I did, but I liken it to their other killer IPA MAXIMUS. Their regular flagship IPA, on the other hand, is just okay – so the fact that these two beers are so off-the-charts amazing is a testimonial to getting the recipe right through trial and error. I’m not sure how much longer Freak Out! is going to be on the market (maybe it’s a limited edition music-themed thing like NORTH COAST BREWING’s “Brother Thelonius”), so if you see it in a beckoning 22-oz. bottle, I’d recommend you bust a move for sure. 9/10.

2 comments:

I was out off by the label as well AND that I saw it on sale at a few places so I thought they were being discontinued...but tasty. (I have a friend with a connection to North Coast Brewing and he tells me that Thelonious Monk isn't a seasonal.)